Persuasive Writing
Persuasive writing is a kind of writing that is used to convince or influence thoughts or actions of a reader. Persuasive writing can sometimes be used to convince people to act in certain ways. In order for persuasive writing to be affective, it must be presented to the reader with a confident trustworthy tone. An effective way of doing this is by using Ethos, Pathos and, logos. Using an organized structure will also add meaning and effect to your overall statement in the writing. Ethos A major factor in persuasive writing is getting the audience or readers to trust you. The real question is why would they? They don’t know you and you don’t know them. This then takes us to Ethos. Ethos is the way the author establishes credibility. This can be done in many ways. One way is to identify who your audience is. Knowing who your audience is will allow you to appeal most to them. In order to keep credibility avoid using grammatical errors. This takes away from the meaning of the writing. Logos Writers can appeal to the audience’s logic to gain credibility. This is known as logos. One way to appeal to the audience is start with known basic facts and branch off. By using common everyday facts you can gain a basis with your audience. Then, as you give more in depth claims be sure to back them up with facts and not generalized statements. Numbers and statistics really stand out compared to statements with no proof. Pathos Possibly the most important of all the three is Pathos. Pathos is writing to appeal to the audience’s emotions. Emotions are a great way to connect with the audience. A powerful statement that appeals to emotions will have a heavy effect and will likely sway their opinions easily. Tone An important aspect of persuasive writing is having a strong confident tone throughout the whole paper. The tone should put off a good feeling to the reader. Almost as listening to the president gives you a strong leading vibe. If the reader feels like the tone is questionable, the writing will have less meaning and effect. Structure The structure of Persuasive writing can be very personal. Although traditionally it starts with an Exordium of the topic. Then comes the narration with some background facts. After the Narration, the overview of the topics get presented. The body of the paper is next. Followed by the Refutation, or alternatives. There are often Rhetorical questions after the alternative to get the reader thinking. Last, a conclusion is needed to closes out the paper. The conclusion needs to wrap up the paper with a strong ending point. It is best if the conclusion is tied back to the beginning of the paper to bring importance to original claim. Engaging Stating your opinion in persuasive writing can be done in a two obvious ways. For instance, you can be very strait forward by coming out and telling the audience what your opinion is. Or you can hint around and gradually push towards your opinion. This gradual or upfront approach will just depend on how you want to present your basis. Something important to consider is other people’s perspectives. In some cases, being upfront about your opinion will instantly deter your audience from listening.